NFL
NFL Week 17
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The Denver Broncos have beaten the Kansas City Chiefs 20-13 on “Thursday Night Football” in a thrilling finale to the NFL’s Christmas Day tripleheader.
Bo Nix’s touchdown pass to RJ Harvey with 1:45 remaining in the fourth quarter gave Denver the lead, and the Broncos held off a late Chiefs drive led by Chris Oladokun to secure the victory.
The Broncos improved to 13-3 and can clinch an AFC West title if the Chargers lose or tie. The Chiefs dropped to 6-10 in what may have been the final home game of Travis Kelce's career.
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Broncos-Chiefs takeaways: Denver escapes K.C. to stay on track for AFC’s top seed
The Chiefs’ lone touchdown drive came on a possession that started on Denver’s 35-yard line after Nix’s tipped pass was intercepted by a diving Nick Bolton. They scored on a long Brandon McManus field goal after cornerback Pat Surtain II was charged with a 27-yard pass-interference penalty. They put together another field goal drive after Denver’s punt coverage unit gave up a 44-yard return to Brashard Smith.
Chris Oladokun was making his first career start after several years on the team’s practice squad. The game plan for the Broncos should have been clear: Don’t make life any easier on him with short fields. However, those three Broncos’ mistakes directly contributed to 13 points.
Give Oladokun credit for making some impressive plays out of the pocket, including one in which he dropped the ball while moving to his left, picked it up and still fired up the middle for a first-down completion. Oladokun also made it interesting on the final drive, moving the Chiefs to the Denver 21-yard line before turning the ball over on downs.
The Broncos made it too hard on themselves Thursday night against an inexperienced quarterback. The Broncos gave up only 95 yards of offense before the Chiefs’ final drive. Kansas City was never going to move the ball up and down the field on its own accord. Denver can’t give Justin Herbert the same gifts next week.
Travis Kelce hasn’t announced whether he’ll retire at the end of this season. If he does, though, Thursday will be remembered as his final home game at Arrowhead Stadium.
There were times — including during pregame introductions — when Kelce seemed to take an extra second or two to soak up the atmosphere, just in case this was his home curtain call.
Kelce was mostly quiet until the final drive Thursday; he finished with five catches for 36 yards. His 11-yard catch in the first quarter was one of the most memorable as he contributed to a third-and-6 conversion before waving to the crowd in celebration afterward.
Kelce, 36, is expected to decide on his future in the next few months. He’s played 13 seasons in the NFL — all with the Chiefs — while earning a Pro Bowl nod in each of his last 11 campaigns.
Style points mean nothing in December.
That was the case Bo Nix made this week as Denver prepared for the penultimate game of the regular season. With the Broncos only two games away from earning the No. 1 seed, that was the team’s mindset, according to its quarterback.
“Whatever it takes to win the game,” Nix said. “It doesn’t really, at this point, matter what it looks like. All the cool, flashy stuff can have already happened, but now it’s just who has more points.”
There was little flashy about how the Broncos snapped a nine-game Arrowhead Stadium losing streak. Denver trudged through four drives of at least 14 plays. Three of those possessions took more than eight minutes off the clock. It was reminiscent of a win a few weeks ago against the Las Vegas Raiders, when the Broncos patiently poked and prodded against a defense that was intent on closing off the field for explosive pass plays.
Still, Denver needed an offsides call on a fourth-and-2 play coming out of the two-minute warning. That set up a 1-yard touchdown pass from Nix to Harvey on third-and-goal, the rookie’s 12th touchdown of the season.
The Broncos produced two drives in the first half that were 14 and 16 plays in length, respectively. Both swallowed more than eight minutes off the clock. Denver converted third downs consistently and dominated the time of possession, methodically pushing the ball down the field, but those two drives ended in field goals and left the Broncos trailing at the half.
It wasn’t pretty, but on a short week, in a game that kept the Broncos’ quest for the No. 1 seed alive, it was enough.
Nix finally got the Broncos into the end zone in the third quarter when he scrambled for a 9-yard touchdown run. His scoring pass to Harvey came at the end of another 14-play drive that gave Denver a lead with 1:45 left.
QB stat lines today:
Merry Christmas.
Sean Payton said center Alex Forsyth got a game ball after stepping into a starting role for Luke Wattenberg, in the same stadium where he was beat for a blocked field goal.
"It's a life lesson," he said.
The Chiefs produced only 95 yards of total offense before the final drive. Ended with 139.
The Broncos were too charitable: interception to set them up at the Denver 35, a big pass interference and a big punt return.
What's the latest on Denver and the AFC playoffs? The Athletic's playoff simulator breaks it all down for the Broncos with one game left in the regular season.
Sean Payton says the Broncos were going to take a delay of game and kick the field goal if they hadn't drawn the penalty on fourth-and-2.
Sean Payton on the quick game tonight:
💬 "That game went fast, didn't it? I looked up and said, 'What happened to the first quarter? What happened to the third quarter?'"
Broncos coach Sean Payton on the win:
💬 "You always have to remember this: You're playing the heart of a champion, Andy and this team. I don't care who comes out of the locker room. … There's a ton of respect we have for what they've accomplished."
Denver will host the Los Angeles Chargers on Jan. 4. The game will be for the AFC West title and No. 1 seed if the Chargers beat the Texans on Saturday.
Kansas City will wrap up its season on Jan. 4 in Las Vegas against the Raiders. The Chiefs will carry a 6-10 record into that game and will have lost seven of their past eight games, including five straight.
This Chiefs team could have folded, given the season-ending injuries to Patrick Mahomes and then Gardner Minshew in each of the past two weeks. Instead, Kansas City gave Denver all it could handle in front of an electric holiday crowd at Arrowhead Stadium — an effort led by No. 3 quarterback Chris Oladokun in his first career NFL start.
Oladokun showed his limitations but acquitted himself well, turning potential sacks into big gains at multiple key points. He finished 13-for-22 with 66 passing yards, one touchdown pass and no interceptions. He also ran for 11 yards on two carries.
Christopher B.: Hats off to the Chiefs for keeping this close with nothing to play for. The stats are massively lopsided in favor of the Broncos.
Edy S.: Darn. First time I can ever remember wanting KC to win….Their backup (backup backup?) QB seemed like a really great guy.
Michael P.: How do you explain Chris Jones forgetting how to play football for a year?
Kenneth B.: As we in Philly are only too painfully reminded, only an Andy Reid coached team can get called for a delay of game penalty coming out of a timeout! Something’s never change!
Christopher B.: Unbelievable that this game was largely decided by a Chris Jones neutral zone infraction on 4th down and a delay of game after clocking the ball. The Broncos are like the Chiefs of 2019-2024. The number of clutch plays they make are roughly equivalent to the number of choke jobs by their opponents.
The Broncos snapped a nine-game losing streak at Arrowhead Stadium that began in 2016. Last win here before tonight was the Bradley Roby scoop-and-score game.
Looked for a bit like the KC voodoo was going to bring the Broncos down. But they finished the long drives in the 2nd half.
It took until the Chiefs’ final drive, but Travis Kelce finally provided some crowd-pleasing moments with three late catches. The 36-year-old legend, playing in perhaps his final home game before retirement, finished as his team’s leading receiver — albeit with just 36 yards on five catches.
RJ Harvey is turning into an important weapon for Denver. He had 43 rushing yards on 14 attempts and added five catches for 33 yards, including the game-winning score.
As he has several times this season, Bo Nix played his best football of the game when it mattered most and helped atone for an early mistake. The final of Nix’s 36 pass attempts was his touchdown throw to RJ Harvey that eventually stood up as the game-winner. Nix finished 23-for-36 passing for 182 yards, the touchdown and his first-quarter interception that led to the Chiefs’ only touchdown of the game.
Nix also rushed for 42 yards and a touchdown on nine caries.
Denver finished with 303 yards of total offense to just 139 yards for Kansas City. The Broncos had the ball for 39 minutes, 28 seconds to just 20:32 for the Chiefs.
And yet, it was a one-score game.
